Supermarkets, B&M etc selling bedding plants

[notedbiscuits]

Every single year during bedding plant season, every supermarket and retailers such as B&M sell bedding plants. They are always look wilted or dead. Such a waste.

A friend who works at a supermarket says that they are delivered on chiller trucks. So these poor plants are grown in greenhouses then transported on trucks which are 1-2c then depending on the supermarket location, either outside in varying temperatures or the air conditioned store. The problem with watering are some trolleys which the plants are transported and on display can’t hold water and dribbles everywhere. Or some stores don’t have time to water plants.

Then she has seen delivery trucks with plants that are squashed. Or had something on top of them.

She says that the store chucks out more bedding plants than what is sold.

So why do supermarkets and retailers who only sell gardening stuff seasonally still sell bedding plants?

AIBU - supermarkets should continue to sell them
AINBU - supermarkets stop selling bedding plants

It's the one stop shop visual...

The upsell, just pick up a plant whilst you grab the milk, the greed of corporations

Yanbu.

It makes me really sad to see all those semi-dead plants. Supermarkets and the like should stick to just selling bulbs and seeds.

Even when they don't look dead supermarket plants never do well in my garden compared with the ones I get from my local garden centre.

I actually thought this the other week, it's so sad seeing them wilted and uncared for, it would be the equivalent of selling pets .. both are living things! I know someone's going to say it's not comparable but I'm going through a hippy stage atm. 😂

Just fucking water them

the amount of resources that goes into growing them just to let them die is obscene. It actually makes me quite sad, but then I talk to my plants

🙄

They're just plants. I really can't think that this is an issue. If we all felt this way about plants we'd starve to death as there would be nothing we could eat.

Missing the point entirely.
If the supermarket ordered some potatoes but then left them outside to rot in the rain instead of displaying and caring for them properly so that the customers can actually buy them and eat them, I would be upset too. Wouldn't you?

Yes, and it’s all supermarkets. Waitrose round here seems to be the worst for the condition they are in. Morrisons seems to be the best.

It’s the plastic pots that annoy me -all that plastic and it used to be the case black plastic wasn’t recyclable- also all the gardeners going on about growing flowers for bees etcetc but buying dozens of plastic bags of compost and pots year on year

😘

@KrisAkabusi
It's not the fact that they are 'just plants'. It's the sheer waste of resources that go into growing them, transporting them etc..

You're not unreasonable. I must be a bit of a hippy too because it makes me sad to see dying plants. More than that, though, it's such a needless waste of resources - growing, transporting, etc.

Morrisons is the surprise standout for me. I've picked up some unusual houseplants, and some very good value 'baby' houseplants that have grown into real monsters. They seem to use a lot of (maybe all?) UK growers too.

Yes, Morrisons here takes proper care of plants, too. Unlike Sainsbury's, who just leave them to die.

The OP refers to "Those poor plants" I just can't get in to that mindset.

I agree with this: Morrisons seems to actually take looking after and protecting their garden section outside the store very seriously. They view it as an important 'department' and not just an afterthought.

I frequently see staff out there monitoring the stock, watering and maintaining the plants; at every single other supermarket, they shove them out in front of the store and then abandon it all until the plants die and the compost bags and bags of decorative stones have ripped open and spilled everywhere.

Interestingly, I always see a lot of customers looking at the plants in Morrisons and taking them in to buy; barely ever see anybody taking any interest in buying at the other shops.

I've complained repeatedly about the state of the plants and flowers in the local Asda .No one gives a monkeys about their care which I feel is just a sign of lack of interest and respect for a living thing.
Even head office just said oh they do get watered but they very clearly don't.
I'm really surprised how much it really annoys me just so wasteful.

I found the reverse last year, I bought some trays of petunias from Lidl, not expecting much from them, and they were fantastic!
About 20 years ago we were in a Garden Centre on Good Friday and saw a forlorn looking Christmas cactus going for 10p, OH said it's Easter, we can resurrect it and we did, it's still going well.

Getting upset about bedding plants…. when only a few metres away the fruit and veg aisle are loads of plants that have been picked, plucked, peeled, chopped, bagged, prodded, trimmed……

I totally agree,
As a gardening fanatic and avid plant woman I find it really disturbing to see such waste.

Our local Morrisons was wonderful in the past.
I have had some plants that are still flourishing in my garden.
However over the last few years they have got worse and everything is left to die.
I spoke to the manager and he said they used to have staff time allocated to caring for the plants.
The policy then changed and he had to find those resources from the everyday routine. The store didn't make enough profit from the plants so he couldn't prioritise it.

I would much prefer they didn't sell plants at all than to be greeted by dying house and garden plants.

My local Waitrose's plant section is very good. The plants are well looked after and always look very healthy. I get cyclamen there every autumn which do well.

Lidl bedding plants look terrible. Similarly, Homebase's bedding plants often look dire and the soil more often than not is dry as a bone.

I mean, all annual bedding plants are a waste really unless you're going to keep the seeds. And they generate so much plastic waste.

I have to say, I have had some great plants from Morrisons! Those that look dead generally perk up with a repot and watering
So much cheaper than garden centre stuff, which has it's place of course!
I love the supermarket plants

Our Morrisons took part of the car park to build a garden centre, it opened occasionally, then it was open but you needed to go back into the store to pay and now it doesn't open at all.

It's horrible. Our B&M has a whole trolley of little bonsai looking trees in gorgeous pots that are all dead.

But they're not reduced. What is the point?

Morrisons and Asda seem the worst around here. Just shelf after shelf, rack upon rack of half dead plants.

B&M Bargains, Home Bargains and Homebase seem very good in our town. I buy loads of plants from them which usually do well. Got several hanging baskets for a fiver each which would have been £25 or more in a proper garden centre! Homebase in particular seem very switched on with selling plants at half price when they start to look as if they're going over or end of season, I've bought loads and brought them round to flower again. Far better than the store leaving them to wilt and die.

It's just down the store and the staff. In our Homebase, there's one woman who seems to always be in the plants area, looking after them, watering them, etc., so presumably it's her job, but then again, it's a huge area. I can't imagine Morrisons having a dedicated staff member for their random racks of plants - maybe it's cheaper to sell what they can when "fresh" and let the others die rather than pay someone's wages to look after them?